Mendez says he was fast asleep at his home with his girlfriend last October when suddenly a troop of officers burst into his room, guns blazing.

He says they didn't have a warrant or any reason to shoot him.

According to Mendez's federal lawsuit against LA County and Sheriff Lee Baca, the officers charged into Mendez's home without knocking or announcing their presence.

In addition to shooting Mendez more than a dozen times, the deputies also shot his girlfriend, Jennifer Garcia, in the back.

States the lawsuit:

At no time were [Mendez or Garcia] suspects in a criminal investigation, nor was there any probable cause to believe that they posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the deputies or others.

The deputies failed to provide [Mendez and Garcia] with any verbal warning prior to shooting them, nor was there adequate provocation, or immediate threat of death or serious physical injury to the deputies to provide ... the legal right to use deadly force.

Somehow, Mendez did survive the shooting. However, doctors had to amputate his leg.